


Calendar

by WildAmaranth



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Kinda, M/M, Slow Burn, im not tagging every character in the valley but assume everyone else is there too, this is very self indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:15:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21755887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WildAmaranth/pseuds/WildAmaranth
Summary: Much like plants, relationships need effort to flourish. They need care and maintenance but mostly? They need time.How one relationship blooms between a grouch and a farmer, days, months, years at a time.
Relationships: Sebastian/Male Player (Stardew Valley), Sebastian/Player (Stardew Valley)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51





	1. Year Zero - Prologue

It’s hard to see so late at night, trudging down this old path towards the old farmland through half-melted snow. His mom used to speak fondly of the guy who used to live there before, but Sebastian wasn’t old enough to really meet him, since he died when he was around five. Some new kid is coming to take it over soon, his grandson apparently.

“He’s your age, Sebby! Isn’t that exciting?” Robin exclaimed over dinner, “Moving from the city all the way out here, that’s one huge shift. The mayor’s asked me to get the house all fixed up for his arrival. Sebby, Maru, I hope you two’ll be friendly with him. He sure seems like a nice boy in his letters, and he won’t have anyone he knows once he gets here. I’ll bet he could use a friend. Maybe you could invite him over for board games, Seb!”

...Fat chance of that.

Anyone coming here to _farm_ of all things has to be some crazy nature hippie, he thought, to be willing to leave the city to come to this podunk town.

God, what he’d give to trade places.

Coming down the last few steps, he’s greeted by wild overgrowth at the entrance to the farm. He remembers exploring the cave on his right with Sam and Abigail when they were kids, daring each other to go in and stay the longest. It seemed so huge then. Now the entrance is blocked by rocks and fallen branches, and he’d rather not take his chances with any potential wildlife that might have taken up residence.

He wades through tall grass over to the farm house. Even to Sebastian’s untrained eye, he can tell where sprawling fields used to be, clearly delineated from the forest creeping in along the edges. Coming up on the house itself, though, and Seb can tell his mom has taken to sprucing it up. The mayor didn’t give her much to work with, though, so he can tell it’s mostly patch jobs, rotten wood removed and replaced with new. He can even see her scrap wood got added to the old wood pile attached to the house. He could tell her handiwork from a mile away.

He doesn’t go in, though. He’s not about to go rummaging through anyone’s stuff, if his things got shipped, and Yoba knows he’s not about to go picking any locks. Too much effort. Instead, he scoots around to the back side of the house. The wide, empty wooden wall calls to him, just a bit. He wants to claim a small part of this old place for himself. It wasn’t really his to claim, but chalk it up to what remained of his rebellious teenage spirit. So he took out his pocket knife, crouched down, and began to carve. It wasn’t pretty, given how dark it was and how out of practice he was with a knife, but there it stood, carved just above the layer of brick that the house rested on:

The addition of his face was a last minute idea. He had a little icon he used online, and, well, it just seemed to fit. Like a signature, almost.

Feeling satisfied with his handiwork, Seb pulls out his lighter and a cig from his pocket and starts to make the trek back up to his house. As he walks back up the mountain path, smoke drifting up from his cigarette, he wonders who exactly this new guy might be. Maybe he’ll be cool, and he and Sam and Abby can all hang out or something, he ponders as he reaches the door to his home. He pauses just for a second, trying to imagine this potentially cool, mysterious new farmer.

“...Nah,” he muses aloud, quietly, “nobody cool is _that_ into _farming._ ” He chuckles a bit to himself, and shuts the door behind him.


	2. Year One - Spring

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sebastian finally lays eyes on the new farmer everyone's been going on about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh BOY seb's about to have a GAY THOUGHT OR TWO. 
> 
> I write all these chapters at ass o' clock at night and i don't have a beta, so feel free to point out if i fuck up or accidentally swap tense or whatever. 
> 
> Also, at the end of the chapter i'll include a picture of local soft boy farmer Jamie! I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination, but it gives a good enough idea about what Jamie looks like to picture his dumb ass in your minds eye. Anyway, enjoy!
> 
> edit: i actually touched up the jamie artwork a bit and fixed a spelling mistake, mostly bc they were bugging the sHIT outta me. now he has nicer, fluffier hair

It’s almost three full weeks into Spring before Sebastian even _sees_ this new farmer.

Doesn’t stop everyone from talking about him absolutely _non-stop_.

Stardew Valley is small and Pelican Town even smaller, so any change to their little ecosystem sends shockwaves. Hell, people are still talking about JojaMart, and that opened almost three months ago now. The point is that, in a quaint rural town like this, everyone loves something new to talk about. It’s quite literally one of the only things to do around here.

Not like Sebastian is some kind of town gossip, though.

What he hears, he hears mostly from his mom and Abby, and what his mom and Abby hear, they hear from their (or in Abby’s case, her father’s) clients. Mom tells him a few things (his name, for one, but he can’t remember it for the life of him. Can’t really bring himself to care, either) but nothing really concrete. Abigail tells him and Sam all her juicy details over their weekly pool game.

“He’s not exactly what you picture when someone says “farmer,” you know? He’s kinda skinny, he always looks half-asleep, and every time he comes up to pay he’s always counting pennies. He's always selling dad random crap like leeks and daffodils just to get seed money. Dude's not exactly rolling in it," Abigail muses from her spot on the couch. Sam is listening intently, and Seb _is_ listening, but he's also trying to sink the 8-ball into the side pocket on his left. 8-ball is winning out at the moment.

"OH! Speaking of rolling in it, last time he was in, he was just _covered_ in mud. And of course _I_ had to clean it all up!” Abigail pouts. Sam lets out a laugh that he then chokes on as the distinct _clat_ of Sebastian sinking that 8-ball rings out in the room. The look of horror that descends over Sam’s face as he realizes he’s losing yet again gets a laugh out of both Abby and Sebastian, and as Sam turns his attention to the table in some foolish attempt to salvage the game, Sebastian turns his full attention to Abigail.

“Did you talk to him at all?” He asks, polishing the tip of his cue, “he couldn’t have been ALL bad.”

“Yeah, I did. He’s kinda quiet, but I get the sense that he’s a good listener. He remembers a lot of stuff, like the exact prices of each seed we sell, or even that I like pumpkins. I told him that _once,_ in passing, and the next day he asks me what season we sell pumpkin seeds so that he can remember to grow me one,” She chuckles and leans back in her seat, eyes glanced upwards as she recalls the memory.

Sebastian shrugs, and returns to the pool table, watching Sam attempt his next shot. “Sounds like a nice guy,” he offers. Really, he sounds kinda boring to Sebastian, but meh. Everyone’s pretty boring around here anyway. Shouldn’t expect any different from the new guy.

“Yeah, he is. I think so, anyway. Oh! There’s one other weird thing about him though!”

Sebastian turns his head to face Abby on the couch, “What’s that?”

“I thought maybe he was just having a good day at first, but even covered in mud and flat broke, this guy never stops smiling. Seriously. It’d be creepy if it wasn’t totally sincere. Like a dog that’s just happy to be alive.”

  
  


Abby could not have been more accurate.

  
  


It’s Thursday on the third week of Spring around 3:00pm when Sebastian finally, _finally_ meets this mysterious new stranger. He trudges up from his lair to grab a snack when he notices someone discussing a large building proposal with his mom at her desk. They’re pouring over some diagram and discussing logistics when Robin notices Sebastian, and she lights up. “Sebby! Excellent timing! This is the new farmer who took over Starlight Farm! We’re talking about building a chicken coop for the farm! Come say hi!” She’s waving him over emphatically before quickly turning to the man across from her, “this is my son, Sebastian! Sebastian, come say hi to farmer Jamie!”

Jamie, that was the name.

Jamie, now walking down the hallway towards him, is about the same height as him, maybe a centimeter or two shorter. He’s got lightly tanned skin, just a hint of color from working in the sun all month. He also has thick, soft-looking brown hair that comes down in layers, and his eyes are _green_. Greener than Seb had ever seen. He’s wearing a worn looking red hoodie and some black-gray jeans, and work boots that looked absolutely caked in mud. In fact, there was dirt all over him in small patches, signs of working in the fields. The only clean thing on him is the new red rucksack he’s carrying, the one Sebastian knows has been sitting on Pierre’s counter for ages. And Abigail was right, he really did have a warm smile plastered all across his face.

By the time Sebastian could really process all of that visual information, Jamie was already in front of him, holding out a hand to shake. “Hi, nice to meet you,” says Jamie, his voice calm, smooth, and warm, warm, warm. Sebastian looks at the hand offered to him, then back up to Jamie’s face.

Sebastian lets out a mildly exasperated sigh _.This is what happens when you mix a petting zoo employee with a librarian_ , he thinks. A cute dweeb, but kind of a dweeb nonetheless. Of course this is the kind of person who picked Stardew Valley over the city.

Sebastian takes the hand offered to him, finally, and the only thing he can think to say is, “out of all the places you could live, you chose Pelican Town?”

The smile washes off of Jamie’s face for just a moment, and then he lets out a laugh. A sweet little thing. Seb’s chest almost tightens a little bit. Almost. Jamie pulls out of the handshake and reaches into his shiny new rucksack. He digs around for a moment, and his smile goes wider when he finds what he’s looking for.

He holds out a pristine daffodil and offers it to Sebastian. “I think you and I are going to be good friends,” he says, and hands the flower to Seb, who by this point is staring at him, mildly bewildered. With a wink, Jamie turns and heads back over to Robin’s desk, where they resume talks about the placement of the potential new coop.

Sebastian stares at the daffodil in his hands. He doesn’t even LIKE daffodils? Who just gives random people they just met flowers like that? Still baffled by the whole exchange, Sebastian wearily heads back down to his room, forgetting his earlier hunger. He immediately tosses the flower in his trash bin.

...But if his mom saw it, he’d get an earful. “Throwing out a gift is RUDE, Sebby!” She’d say. Loudly. Being 24 doesn’t excuse you from your mom yelling at you, apparently. He doesn’t know where to put it, though. He doesn’t exactly have a lot of flower vases sitting around. Besides, it’s a flower that grows literally anywhere, it’s not like it’s a rarity to be displayed.

He looks around his room for a moment, before his eye is caught on the manga he left sitting on his desk. People pressed flowers in books, right? And he just finished that volume anyway. Feeling rather proud of his quick thinking, he places the flower inside the middle of the book, presses it flat, and shoves it back onto his shelf.

There. Nice and tidy. No mess, no dumb flower in his room, and no more weird farmers to prevent him from attaining the snacky sustenance he craves. He’ll head back up once he hears the front door shut again, not wanting a repeat encounter. But even as he settles back into his computer chair, he can’t help but think about him. Jamie. _“Good friends,” my ass_ , he thinks, letting out a huff of a laugh.

Really, who just hands out flowers like that anyway?

**Author's Note:**

> see its funny, bc that mysterious farmer boy is the least cool kid on the planet
> 
> i wrote this because i love Sebastian with all my heart and i love coming up with goofy interactions between him and my cute gnc farmer boy named Jamie. i wanted to chronicle their relationship from the start. im just having a lot of fun over here. i would die for these kids. enjoy!


End file.
